LUKAS JUTKIEWICZ is expected to finally complete his protracted move to Middlesbrough on Monday in a move which could be worth up to £2.3m for Coventry City.

City’s leading scorer joined the Teesiders on an emergency loan on Saturday morning to enable him to play in Boro’s 2-0 home defeat by Burnley, in which he made his debut as a second-half substitute.

But the Telegraph understands that the Sky Blues star striker is expected to complete his permanent move to the Riverside today.

And Thorn and Boro boss Tony Mowbray have a gentleman’s agreement that he won’t play at the Ricoh Arena this weekend.

The 22-year-old, who cost the Sky Blues £100,000 from Everton rising to £300,000 over three years, is understood to have been sold by the club for £1.5million, rising to £2.3million.

The Toffees will get a ten per cent sell-on cut of that and although Thorn won’t see a penny of the profit to buy permanent players, he will be able to use Jutkiewicz’s £7,000 a week to help towards wages.

Thorn said: “I’m obviously really disappointed to be losing Lukas but we’ll have to put up with that.

"At the end of the day, as I keep being told, it’s a business.

“I fought tooth and nail to keep him in the last window and I tried again in this window but it wasn’t to be.

"I can offer an opinion but I can’t control the purse strings.”

Mowbray revealed that his agreement not to play Jutkiewicz this weekend got the deal over the line, saying: "It’s unlikely he’ll be on the team sheet, the deal wouldn’t have happened unless we had a gentlemen’s agreement that he wouldn’t play.

“They were stalling and making it drag out and it probably wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t agreed not to play him next week.

“The Middlesbrough game was looming large in their board’s eyes - the prospect of Lukas coming back and scoring against them - so just to push the thing through and make it happen for this weekend I had a conversation with their manager and we agreed we wouldn’t play him next week.

“Lukas is coming for the next three or four years helping us get where we want to be and it’s a long-term thing not a short-term thing.

"We’ve been fine without him this season so one more week won’t make a difference.”